Kakao Talk launched in March last year and has become the most widely used charge-free social networking service application in Korea. Kakao Talk boasts more than nine million subscribers worldwide, including one million foreign customers, such as in Japan.

“I couldn’t reach my mom in Japan after the massive earthquake so I called the embassy and the Korean community there, but because of the telecommunication disruptions, all I could hear from them was that they can’t confirm whether she’s alive or not,” said one user.

“I was worried to death so I sent her a message through Kakao Talk and she answered right away,” the person said.

The company currently supports three languages: Korean, Japanese, and English. The free application can be downloaded by iPhone and Android phone users and there are plans to develop an application for BlackBerry smartphones. In order to monetize the application the company launched a service allowing users to send gift coupons to their friends.

“Since we launched the gift service in December last year, we’ve earned a total of around 10 billion won (US$9.1 million) in revenue,” Park Yong-hu, director of Kakao Talk’s public relations said.